THE NEW YOR.KER. about your clandestine operation in the south; it is a breach of our sovereignty; your food is killing our soldiers." Sadiq made it clear that he expected UNICEF to cease its activities in the south, and that if it didn't all United Nations organizations in the Sudan might be expelled. To reinforce the message, the Sudanese Foreign Minister, who was in New York for a meeting of the General Assembly, repeated it to James P. Grant, the head of UNICEF. UNICEF ceased its assistance to the hu- manitarian groups working in the south. Having won that victory, the Sudanese government pushed for an- other, and won it, too. It wanted Cole Dodge out. Dodge worked for five years as UNICEF's representative in Uganda before he came to Khartoum, in August of 1986. In January of this year, because of the pressure from the government, he left the Sudan. Dodge departed quietly, and, as with Winston Prattley's departure two years earlier, there was no international outcry, no diplomatic protest. In October, the World Food Pro- gram, later assisted by Catholic Relief Services, began an airlift of food to Juba, which had been largely cut off because of actions by the S.P .L.A. and government soldiers. The op- eration provided food, some of it donated by AID, for a hundred and fifty thousand residents and fifty thousand refugees. Several journalists went to J uba, and the resulting stor- ies again left the impression that the starving in the Sudan were be- . ing cared for. But the rest of the southern Sudan was still in desperate need. Most of the relief for the S.P .L.A.- controlled areas in the south has been provided by Norwegian People's Aid. From its base in Nairobi, this organization has delivered thirty-five hundred tons of food overland by truck to the S.P .L.A.-controlled town of N arus, and it has airlifted thirty million tons of medical supplies in dozens of cross-border flights, origi- nating in Nairobi, to the S.P .L.A. towns of Pibor and Kapoeta. O N January 24th, the New York Times reported that the Ameri- can government would begin providing food to organizations that would deliver it to areas of the southern Sudan controlled by the S.P.L.A. The American Embassy in Khartoum had opposed the plan, and, indeed, had ac- tually presented the proposal to the Sudanese government for its approval, and the government had said no. That the United States was going ahead with the plan reflected increasing frus- tratio'n with the government of Sadiq al-Mahdi. Further reflecting a change in the American attitude was a comment by a senior diplomat in Washington. "I don't like saying this about a democracy, but we wouldn't mind seeing a coup," he said. Having been so solicitous of Sadiq al-Mahdi for so long, the United States was now go- ing to the other extreme. - RAYMOND BONNER . LOOKING TO CONSOLE THE MAKER. A potter fragile as porcelain is reading this, fragile and cool as shatter gone back to slip. In a room where a wheel turns and clay thins someone who has to start from scratch is starting in. Bright with blue paint and unlikely lines, a wet gray shell holds still for a new brush. The potter tries another color and another touch. A marsh bird builds among rushes, to that design. A potter breakable as china is firing clay: the kiln is white with heat, the surface waves with heat; the blue and thin-white glaze is cool as water. Who holds the vase? - ELIZABETH MACKLIN 101 Ouiet Elegance in London s Most Fashionable Setting The" Chesterfield Hotel Deluxe 35 Charles Street. Mayfair (just off Berkeley Square) London WIX 8LX England Telephone: 01 491 2622 212 245 9389 Telex: 269394 Fax: 01 491 4793 B A Tonman Hundley Hotel Super Spring Special! $699 for a new annual membership! Offer expires March 31st fw 752 West End Avenue New York, NY 10025 (212) 749-3500 "A private estate that sw ps all honors as the most enchant- ing lakefront sanctuary of its kind in America." THE HIDEAWAY REPORT TI--IE P(}INT Experience life as it's meant to be, at this former Rockefeller estate m the Adirondack mountains-private, romantic, and eminently civilized. Luxuriate in front of a crackling fire with breakfast in bed; strolL ski, or snowshoe across the frozen lake and through hushed hemlock forests; curl up and settle in with a good book; dine elegantly by candlelight in the Great Hall with old friends and new Discover The Point -endorsed by seven years of rave reviews, and one of only ten Relais & Chateaux in the U.S. THE POINT, Saranac Lake, NY 12983 518-891-5678 1< 0 Cartouche I) 18 K Solid Gold from $140.00 Sterling Silver fron1 $ 35.00 A talisn1an with your nan1e in Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics Freeinfo 1-800-237-3759 Visa- MC - Am-Ex - Disc Or write Nationwide, Box 8474-1, Pgh., PA. 15220